Ambitious projects in the works

Trail signage, maps and trail restoration is planned.

Written by Reading Eagle

Fred Moreadith notes that BAMBA has several projects ongoing at the moment: trail signage; construction of informational kiosks; the International Mountain Biking Association ride center re-evaluation for the Greater Reading area; and trail restoration, rerouting and reconstruction at Blue Marsh.

The trail signage is in its third year, and the group is financing it as much as possible with its own money.

It is also building internal kiosks — small ones located on the trails rather than at trailheads — to help guide cyclists.

To do this, it is using, in part, money earned selling maps that the group created under a grant from the Berks County Community Foundation several years ago.

R.E.P. prints these weatherproof maps on polyester, so they can withstand the rigors of the open trail, and BAMBA sells them for $10 to nonmembers.

The IMBA ride center re-evaluation — see main story — is tied into a very ambitious project: reworking and restoring trails at Blue Marsh, all in cooperation with the officials who manage it.

"Blue Marsh was state of the art in the '80s,” Moreadith said. “It has outlived modern design trail standards, for mountain biking, hiking and equestrian use.”

BAMBA is meeting with park rangers and plans to meet with the US Army Corps of Engineers, to work in partnership with them, raising funds for what could very well be a multi-million dollar project.

For right now, Moreadith said, “We're trying to take it a little bite at a time, to see how people support the project.”

John Pacharis, BAMBA's coordinator for kids events and Tuesday night rides, said that the group hopes to begin with a skills park.

“It would be at the Blue Marsh stilling basin,” he said, “coming down from top toward the main parking lot, with probaby three or four different progressive skill lines.”

Being mostly trails, they would require little maintenance, Pacharis said.